CHAPTER 1

- This story picks up immediately Bella leaves the meadow after her encounter with Laurent and the wolves in NM Chapter 10 and uses a few lines from Chapter 17 when Alice shows up, mainly the stuff about her past.

Therefore anything recognizable belongs to Stephanie Meyer.

I finally reached home as my panicked tears slowed and dried on my face. I ran inside then double and triple checked that all the doors and windows were locked. Not that murderous vampires would be deterred by any of that but the wolves would at least have trouble with the doorknob.

Charlie wasn't home yet, hopefully he had a safer day than me. I wasn't sure where he would be today. I should have asked him for more details. He'll be furious when I tell him I was in the woods and saw some giant wolves.

I was curled on the couch still panicking when there was a knock at the door. I jumped so violently at the sound I almost fell off the couch. Okay, I told myself, vampires who want to kill you are highly unlikely to knock. It's probably Billy or Harry or a neighbor dropping something off for Charlie. Or maybe Jake? If he miraculously decided to see me again and came here. I pulled up the corner of the window curtain and across the street was a car that looked exactly like Carlisle's.

My heart jumped into my throat and the edges of the hole in my chest rippled. Could it really be him or one of the others? Why would they come back now? Before I had time to fully comprehend the questions spinning in my mind I was at the front door and looking into the light amber eyes of Alice Cullen for the first time in six months.

I barely registered her concerned and shocked expression before I jumped into her arms and fresh tears started rolling down my cheeks.

"I can't believe you're here. I missed you so much. I am so happy to see you. How are you here? Why are you here? I can't believe it's really you. I missed you so much." I babbled as I clung to her, desperate to prove to myself that she was real.

She pulled us apart just enough to see my face. "I missed you too and you're here," her brow furrowed in confusion. "Can you please explain to me how you're alive?"

"um..." I stared at her not sure what she meant but also not sure how to tell her that Laurent and Victoria and giant wolves could possibly show up here any second to kill me.

This caused a new wave of sobbing and Alice pulled me into the living room and onto the couch. "Shh Bella, everything's okay. We're going to figure this out." She stroked my hair and my back until my tears stopped.

"Everything's going to be okay now," she repeated.

"Why are you here, Alice? I mean I'm so glad that you are of course, but what happened?" I asked when I could finally trust my voice again.

"I had a vision early this morning of you and Laurent in a meadow in the woods. It looked like he was going to kill you and then the vision just stopped. The future just went black and I couldn't see you no matter how hard I searched." Her voice had the slightest edge of panic as she spoke about my encounter a few hours ago. "I've never had anyone's future just disappear in the middle of a vision before. I had them get blurry or hazy when the decisions around them aren't firm but never just suddenly gone like that. I was so worried.

"I dropped everything to come here and try to save you or stop him or if he had killed you I could help Charlie out somehow…" she trailed off still sounding a little shocked and confused, "but I couldn't see anything else until I was nearly here and saw that you would answer the door for me instead of Charlie. Bella, you have to tell me what happened. I don't understand it, but I'm so glad you're alright."

I sat up then, my hands still wound around her small arm because I needed to touch her to believe she was really here. "Laurent was in the meadow when I found it," I began, wincing a little at the thought of why I was there in the first place. "He said he was checking to see if you were still here as a favor to Victoria." Alice growled at her name and then nodded for me to continue.

"He told me he was surprised I was here alone because he thought I was your pet or something and that Victoria wanted to kill me. He said he was sorry but he was thirsty and he would make it quicker than Victoria would. He was right in front of me and then I heard this growling on the other side of the meadow and there were these huge wolves that came out and then he ran away. Like he was scared of them too. They were terrifying but they chased after him and left me alone. When they were all gone, I finally ran back to my truck and I've been sitting here panicking ever since."

Alice looked deep in thought with her eyes narrowed. "Wolves," she finally whispered, "I'll need to talk to Carlisle about those."

"Does he know you're here? Do they all know?" I stopped myself from thinking too hard about the 'all' including him. Alice pulled me into another hug because she probably sensed my meaning.

"Jasper will be here very soon. I was alone in Mississippi when I had the vision. When I mentioned Laurent he of course wasn't going to let me track him down alone." She rolled her eyes slightly at this and the corners of her mouth pulled into a slight smile. "The others didn't exactly approve of my seeing you and meddling but I told them we still need to protect you. Edward was most adamant about that when we left after all."

We both ignored my wince at the sound of his name, Alice was still holding me so the hole didn't feel so bad. I still changed the subject.

"Why were you alone in Mississippi?" The South seemed a weird place for a vampire to go.

"I was researching my past that we found out from James. I pieced together the location from my first memories as a vampire and found the asylum records. I was born Mary Alice Brandon, I had a little sister named Cynthia, and I even have a niece still alive in Biloxi. The date on my gravestone and my hospital admittance is the same," she said gravely. Her expression seemed far away, like she was trying to summon the terrible memories that sent her to that horrible place.

"I'm so sorry Alice. I can't even imagine what that would be like." I wondered why she had gone alone but wasn't sure how to ask.

"I know, and technically I can't imagine it either because I can't remember it. The asylum hospital I was in is still in use actually, remodeled of course, but I couldn't bring myself to go inside," she shook her head slightly and answered my unspoken question, "I decided to go alone because I wasn't sure how long it would take me to find any information or what my reaction would be and I wanted some time to process everything I had learned."

I didn't know what else to say so I just nodded slowly and laid my head on her shoulder.

She was quiet for a moment and finally murmured, "you look horrible Bella, I'm so sorry we left," she paused and leaned her head over on top of mine. "It was clearly an awful idea. Recent near death experiences aside."

"I'm trying, " I sighed pathetically, "I need to attempt to be normal for Charlie at least." I didn't mention any of the nightmares or hallucinations or the fact that I barely have any solid memories between September 15th and shortly after New Years Eve.

"I tried to tell him," she sighed and put her arms around me, "I should have tried harder to talk him out of it but he wouldn't hear any of our arguments. He just kept saying it was the best way to protect you and a clean break would be best." I winced slightly but I was thankful she used the word 'him' instead of his name.

"A clean break," I repeated slowly as the meaning sank in. "That's why you didn't say goodbye? And didn't answer my emails?"

Alice looked like she might cry. "Yes, and I'm so sorry Bella. He made us all swear not to contact you and made me promise not to look for your future either."

"Does he know you're here now?" As much as I wanted her back, I would hate it if I came between their family again and he would no doubt be angry that Alice had seen me.

"No," she still sounded sad and she looked at the floor, "he only checks in every few weeks. Mostly texts with very short answers, the last time he actually called was Christmas. I also told everyone to wait to try to tell him once I figured out what to do about Laurent and my disappearing vision of you. He would definitely panic."

Her face went blank for a second as she checked the future. "Jasper's plane just landed and he will be here in a half hour, pretty much the same time as Charlie gets home. So I will go meet Jazz and we'll track Laurent a little while you and Charlie have dinner."

"What? No! You can't leave already, please!" I cried. I barely contained my panic but I did not want her out of my sight yet.

"It's okay," she said softly, "just for a few hours. You need to eat and at dinner tell Charlie that I called you and want to visit tomorrow. Just say visiting for now. He's going to be rightfully mad at us so I need to think of the best way to tell him we're coming back. I'll see you again when Charlie goes to sleep tonight," she pulled me into a hug again. "We're going to keep you and Charlie safe, don't worry."

"You're coming back?" I asked hopefully. "Everyone?"

"Yes everyone, we all missed you terribly and again, we clearly should have never left in the first place." She gave me a hard look as she surveyed my whole body. "That's another thing Jasper and I will do but by now they've started packing and making a few different plans based on what I will tell them later."

My emotions warred between joy and panic at the thought of Alice leaving me so soon and the possibility of seeing all the Cullens again. I would even take Rosalie on alone at this point if it meant they were really coming back to me.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, dinner, talk to Charlie, and then I'll see you tonight with Jasper." I tried to sound like I could do that, it sounded simple, but Alice saw right through me.

She grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at her. "I promise we will be back as soon as Charlie is asleep. Tell him I am visiting colleges and called you because I want to stop by. If he gets angry, say that we had to change our phone numbers when we moved so I couldn't call."

I stared at her for another second and nodded, determined not to let Charlie hate Alice. "I can do that."

"Yes. You can and you will. It will be fine if you stick to what I told you." She patted my shoulder and nodded too. "Don't mention the wolves to him yet either, we need to figure this out first." I agreed and pulled her back down to put my head on her shoulder again. Neither of us said anything more until it was time for her to leave. Thoughts of wolves and vampires and delivering this news to Charlie still spun through my mind but I was surprisingly calm about it with Alice here.

A/N This story is beta-read by russianred and a couple other friends who do not have accounts here for me to credit but I am grateful to them anyway.